Recipe: Venison Casserole

recipelink.com Chat Room Recipe Swap - 2000-12-05
From: Ingrid.F,.Norway

Venison Casserole.

2 T plain flour
4 T butter
1 cup of wine, red or dry white
1-2 cups of water
Pinch of thyme
1 bay leaf
2-3 cloves of garlic
1 piece of celeriac (knob celery)the size of a child’s fist, peeled and cut in pieces
2 lb chunks of venison or other game – hare, elk.
Salt and pepper
1 cup sour cream
1 lb onions
1/2 lb fresh mushrooms – or medium tin of button mushrooms

Brown butter and flour slowly until the color of cocoa. Pull pan away from heat and add wine. Stir vigorously until thick and smooth. Add water, heat while stirring until it boils.

Add thyme, bay leaf, garlic and celeriac. Let simmer.

Cut meat in pieces 2x2 inches, salt and pepper them and brown the meat on all sides in butter in a skillet. Transfer meat and drippings to sauce, deglace the pan with a little water, stir, add to sauce.
Let simmer until the meat is almost tender. Add sour cream.
Cut onion in thick slices or slim sections, brown, add to sauce. Do the same with fresh mushrooms – canned may be whole, but should be browned.

Simmer until everything is tender. Taste. The sauce may want one cube of bullion, or some drops of Worcestershire sauce. If you used red wine you may want a teaspoon of tomato paste, if you used white wine you may want a drop of lemon, or maybe some capers or green olives.

Serve with a green and one red/yellow veggie after your taste – I probably would chose broccoli and baby carrots, others would use Brussels sprouts or green beans. Plain boiled potatoes or mashed ones. Cranberry sauce, lingonberry jam or rowan jelly.

More wine. Lighted candles. A toast to the hunter, and a toast to the cook.